Breakin' at the Cracks
by colleenkali
Summary: He had done it again! Annabeth storms off, leaving Percy at a park by himself, forcing him to walk home. On the way home, he walks past a mysterious man. As soon as he walks past, the man disappears. Percabeth. One-shot.


**Hey guys! This is Alice! I decided that this account needed another story since Esme hasn't updated our other story, "Returning Home". Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Alice doesn't own PJO no matter how much she wants to. *sniffle***

Percy POV

And he had done it again!

Percy Jackson stood there on the sidewalk while his girlfriend drove off, leaving him stranded at the park, forcing him to walk home. How had he made Annabeth angry at him? Well, he wasn't sure of that himself. One minute they're sharing a nice day at the park, and the next, she's storming off to the car, leaving him confused.

On his walk back home, he looked up and saw a very odd man leaning against a street light. The man was wearing a long, black trench coat, and a hat that cast a shadow over his face. His stance suggested that he was no one to mess with. Percy walked by him without any trouble at all, but when he looked back, the man was nowhere to be found.

_Well that was odd._ Percy thought, continuing on his trek.

Later on in the week, after many calls to her voicemail, Annabeth finally forgave Percy for their stupid argument. Percy had invited Annabeth over for dinner and a movie, and so she came. After their dinner of lasagna and garlic toast, Percy suggested to Annabeth that she pick out a movie while he cleared the table. While Percy put the dishes in the dishwasher, Annabeth walked over to the bookshelf full of movies, taking her time deciding. After five minutes of looking at the movies, she pulled out "Easy A", stuck it in the dvd player, and plopped down next to Percy on the couch.

Towards the end of the movie, the couple nodded off to sleep, without a care in the world. While Percy dreamed of camp and Annabeth, his girlfriend dreamed of the man in the long, black trench coat.

_In the dream:_

"_Now where is he?" the man asked._

"_I-I-I don't know!" replied a teenage boy, who had wet his pants._

"_Stop lying to me! I know you know where they are!" the man picked up a long, sharp kitchen knife and held it at the teen's throat. "Now tell me where they are or I'll slit your throat and let you bleed to death." The man pressed the knife to the teen's throat, a few drops of blood blossoming at the edge of the knife._

"_All right, all right! They're at 1103 Huntington St.!"_

"_Are you lying to me?"_

"_N-n-no! I promise they're there!"_

_The man dropped the knife and it hit the ground with a loud clatter. The teen, fell to the cement, relieved and worried. The man walked away without another word and the teen looked up. The teen that had just given the man the place of Percy and Annabeth was none other than Nico di Angelo._

_End of dream._

Annabeth woke with a start, Percy along with her. The phone was ringing, loud and clear. Percy picked up one of the cordless phones and answered.

"Hello?" Percy asked.

"_Percy! This is Nico! You need to get out of there, and quickly!"_ the voice on the other end said.

"What?" Percy asked, curious.

"_Just trust me!" _Nico said, clearly shaken.

"I think we should trust him Percy!" Annabeth said, remembering her dream. "I just had a dream about a man trying to get information out of Nico, and I'm guessing he was wondering where we were."

"Alright, we'll get out of here. See ya Nico." Percy said.

"_Bye guys. Be safe!"_ Nico said.

Percy hung up the phone and got up, walking towards his bedroom. After grabbing his wallet, some extra cash, and Riptide, Percy made his way back to the living room where Annabeth was waiting.

"Alright, let's go." Percy said.

But as soon as Percy had said the word "go", the front door was smashed inwards, leaving the couple with no other way out except for the backdoor. Unfortunately, they weren't quick enough. The man had Annabeth by the neck, slowly choking her to death, making it unable for her to breathe.

"If you want your girlfriend to live, I suggest you stop where you are and drop your weapons." The man said, his face shadowed by his hat.

"Leave her alone." Percy said, turning around and looking back at the man. "It's me I'm sure you want."

"Alright then." The man flung Annabeth across the room, making her hit her head on the edge of the coffee table, knocking her unconscious, her head bleeding. "I'll have my little fun with you, kill you, and then go kill your girlfriend. Now put Riptide down."

"How do you know about Riptide? No one knows about my sword except for a few choice people." Percy said.

"Just take Riptide out of your pocket, put it on the ground in front of you where I can see it, and I won't kill your girlfriend right now in front of your eyes." The man said.

Slowly, Percy pulled Riptide out of his back pocket and threw it across the room. It landed with a clatter on one of the kitchen counters, and disappeared.

"Very clever Percy. Now take it out of your pocket and put it on the ground in front of you or I _will_ kill your girlfriend." The man said again.

_What the hell?_ Percy thought to himself. He pulled out Riptide again and set it on the floor at his feet. The man walked forward and picked up the pen. Percy caught a quick glimpse of the man's face, and was surprised to find that it looked familiar. But then again, he wasn't surprised since most of his enemies he had seen at least once already.

"Are you gonna take off your hat so I can see you properly or are you just going to pretend like I shouldn't care who my enemy is?" Percy asked, hoping to get a reaction to the mysterious man.

"Sure, I'll take off my hat for you. But don't be surprised to find it's someone you know very well." The man replied.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the man took off his hat with his back turned to Percy. The man had untidy dark brown hair. He turned to look at Percy with a smirk upon his face. Percy gasped when he realized who the man was. Now he knew why he looked so familiar. He saw this man's face in the mirror every day. The man was an older version of Percy, except for the fact that he was colder and darker.

With a smirk, the older Percy said, "Do you like what you see?"

"No…" Percy said, with some hesitation. "What the hell happened? Why the hell do you want to kill me? I'm yourself! If you kill me now, then you wont be there in the future!"

"That's the whole point!" older Percy said. "I watched Annabeth die before my eyes while she tried to give birth to our daughter! And I just couldn't stand it! Annabeth's daughter, my daughter – she looked so much like Annabeth that I couldn't take it! So I drowned her! I threw her off a bridge into a river! I just couldn't take it! Annabeth had been the last good thing in my life and I knew I would go spiraling into depression if she died! It didn't help that our daughter was an exact copy of her…it just didn't help…" older Percy said, flopping down on the couch, head in his hands, breaking down and crying.

"And so that's the whole reason you've become this cold person? This murderer? That's why you came to kill me? Just so you wouldn't have to face that? How do you think I feel learning about this?" Percy said, now angry at the older version of himself. "Knowing that Annabeth is gonna die, along with our daughter doesn't make this any better! You've just come here to kill yourself and be done with it! Is this what you really want? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?"

"Yes. This is what I want." The older Percy said in a quiet voice, lifting his head from his hands. "I just cant take the pain of knowing two valuable things of mine have been taken away from me forever, even though I know one of them was my fault. Think about it, how would you feel with all this guilt weighing you down?"

"Well I wouldn't have done it in the first place. I would have handled it as best as I could." Percy said.

"Well that's what I did. I handled at as best as I could, but it just wasn't working." The older version of Percy got up off the couch and walked toward the younger Percy. "This isn't going to be easy, but I have to say goodbye now."

And so the older version of Percy lifted a gun out of his pocket, aimed it at his younger version's head, and pulled the trigger, the sound reverberating through the house. The younger Percy fell and the older one disappeared. No puff of smoke. No explosion. No noise. Just disappaeared.

About fifteen minutes later, Nico got to Percy's house to find the door broken and forced inwards. He walked to the living room and first found Annabeth on the floor, with blood surround her head. Walking towards her, he sees Percy on the ground a few feet from her with a bullet hole in his head. Nico kneels down and feels for a pulse on Annabeth's neck, but finds nothing. He closes his eyes and one silent tear rolls down his cheek, knowing one of his best friends is long gone.

**Did you guys like it? :D I know it's kind of a sad ending, but I'm just good at those. And please review! I'm gonna cry if you don't! DX But if you review you get a cookie… :D**

**- Alice**

**(P.S. I think you'll like our profile cuz there's lots of random stuff on it… XD)**

**(P.P.S. If you read all of my author note(s) on this story, then please review and say: ****I # #s****. If you only read half of them, say: ****I like #s****. If you only read this part of my author's note, say: ****I don't like author's notes****. Oh, and "#'s" does NOT mean numbers…I promise…I'll tell you guys what it means if I get 15 reviews.)**


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